173 Seas and Skies (3)

***

There was a seventh voice, but this one was delayed for a brief moment. It was delayed a brief moment after the six voices screamed, yelled, yelped, or shouted. It was in that brief moment in which Katrin suddenly found himself experiencing utter clarity and utmost dread.

"NO!" she screamed a couple moments too late to join the chorus, but it was no less heartfelt than any of theirs.

But Philip, again, neither heard her nor stopped. He didn't hesitate for an instant. He tapped his badge. "Bermuda!"

Grand Kraken appeared at his call. Huge tentacles wrapped around Turtle Island, and the island, the {whole island} sank five feet on the spot. The beaches were instantly flooded. Seawater came in a shockingly fast splurge. The lower docks were plunged underwater and some of the boats moored at it were dragged down too.

"Landho! Awaken!" Philip called, and the island shook. The central hill heaved, and shifted, and buildings came crashing down in a hurry as one broad, round extension of the island suddenly reared up, completely tossing Granny Rose's Bakery right off its back, and turned around to lay a sleepy eye on Philip.

"It's a turtle." Katrin said in a daze. "Turtle Island really is a {turtle}."

Meanwhile, Grand Kraken called in his clan and massive tentacles were smashing into everything on every side. People all over were screaming like there was no tomorrow. Gaians were scrambling about to and fro in a total panic. Katrin would have fallen over laughing if she weren't too sick to move in the first place.

"Marni!" Philip called, and a huge golden albatross appeared. He didn't stop there. He kept calling more and more Lords of the Wilds. "Deepriver! Dreadtide! Bucanaga! Crabbarex!"

"P-Phi... lip...?" Katrin coughed. "W-why...?"

She rolled over on her back, panting, and only then did she see why Philip found it so necessary to warp in the Lords of the Wilds and their clans.

The Cult had come in force. Where a dozen saucers had descended from the skies for Katrin, the entire sky appeared to be raining fire. There must have been easily forty, maybe fifty Gaian Saucers all entering the atmosphere at dangerous speeds, and every one of them was coming to capture Philip.

"N-no..." Katrin struggled. She flopped her hand over her Traveler Watch. "Call... Philip... Transplanar..."

The call got through at once. Philip had made sure such an emergency call would have top priority.

"Philip..." Katrin coughed. "R-run..."

"I'm coming to get you out." Philip said grimly. His voice held no mercy for anyone who might get in his way.

"No, I c-cant..." Katrin coughed again and threw up blood.

Turtle Island (a.k.a. Landho the Super-Giant Turtle) sank another few feet as Crabs and Naga and Octopi and about nine other different kinds of amphibious and airborne Ocean Wilds started clambering on the 'island' and going on a total rampage. Landho himself twitched slowly, and let out a deep, ground-shaking groan that leveled half the surviving buildings in the village.

"Uwaaaaaah!" Henry went running one way with an equally panicky jackrabbit clutching a carrot as if for dear life as they fled down the road.

"Mommyyyyyy!" Rita went shrieking the other way side by side with someone else's monkey Comrade clutching its head in exact imitation of her.

Meanwhile, a yellow bolt fired at truly extreme ranges slammed smack dab into the center of the Market. There was a big explosion and just a little bit more screaming (most everyone was screaming at the top of their lungs already by then), and then a mass stampede out toward the already sunken docks.

Next to Katrin, Swift yawned. "Oh, bother."

Katrin coughed. "Swift! Can you... get me... out?!"

Swift glanced up at all those saucers coming down and said, "Trying to get away from {this} crazy nutpile? Meh. Don't bother."

"B-but..."

"Every one of them is locked on to you right now, you know that, don't you?" Swift pointed.

Katrin saw his point immediately. There on every screen on the island was the image of her reaching towards half of Swift's foot. The public broadcast was still ongoing and it was a no-brainer to figure out that every Saucer up there had a bead on her already.

A guy with a monkey mask ran their way yelling "Monyet! MONYET!!"

Eight or nine different yellow bolts from as many different Saucers slammed down on him before he could get within ten feet of Katrin. And then two beams from wildly different angles blazed into the ground right where he had stood...

Monkey-mask guy respawned right next to Katrin as the 'ground' reacted very violently to the green beams. Maybe Landho wouldn't have minded so much if he were asleep but now that he was awake, he most definitely felt it when flying saucers shot at him with beam cannons. He roared and twin globes of some burning blue... {something} went flying out toward an offending Saucer. It splashed onto its skin and then it started flying wildly as it caught fire.

Other saucers weren't falling so easily. They were shooting at the Ocean Wilds, shooting at the ocean, shooting at the docks and the boats, shooting at people running around for no reason Katrin could think of other than that they were running around like headless chickens.

But Philip was only just getting started. Already the Ocean Wilds were wreaking havoc on the few surviving cultists on Landho's back and many turned their attention to the incoming Saucers, but Philip clearly felt that this just wasn't enough. Everything that Katrin felt about making the Cult pay... apparently Philip felt as much or more.

"Leviathan!" Philip roared, and the waters of the Ocean around Turtle Island turned black. Completely, inexplicably black. It wasn't like they'd been stained with ink like squids released or anything. It was like something dark, something unspeakably vast had appeared below and anyone looking into the clear waters of the Glass Ocean was looking at its immense colors beneath the churning waves.

A maelstrom appeared. A huge whirlpool suddenly drew in everything in the ocean around Turtle Island like someone had opened a stopper at the bottom of the very sea itself. But when it appeared, a sound also emerged, a sound like thunder, yet a sound like the guttural yawning of an immense, unfathomably deep throat.

"Scyllakhan!" Philip called forth other monsters from the deep, things that sailors dared speak of only on the drunkest nights or in the hushest whispers. "Charybdiva! Nautilion!"

"Philip, stop!" Katrin screamed and to the depths of Leviathan's maw with the respawning sickness. "You'll kill us all!"

"Styxian!" Philip shouted, and a liquid humanoid shape appeared at his side, one resembling a knight in cruel-looking armor. "Grinchmaw!"

The very air was crackling now. Streams of loose lightning rippled through the charged air and over the ground, burning road and structure and people alike. Those who died were respawning around Katrin at a mind-blowing rate. People all over Turtle Island were dying like crazy.

"Monyet!" Monkey-mask boy hugged the monkey that respawned beside Rita, both monkey and girl having their hair standing on end in spite of said hair's lengths.

Henry, the jack-rabbit and the carrot all appeared on top of each other almost on top of Swift.

Alicia and Colin appeared right next to each other directly in front of Katrin, as if to block the cameras from broadcasting her. It didn't matter anyway; wild lightning was arcing over the equipment and every screen in sight had gone completely dark.

"The warp barrier is still up?" Alicia groaned as she sat down looking green. She took out what looked like half a leaf and started sniffing at it.

Colin meanwhile glanced about warily. He noted Katrin and looked like he was about to say something for a moment, but then he turned away and didn't speak. {He doesn't look sick. How come? Everyone feels sick after they die. Right?}

But perhaps Katrin was getting used to Colin doing the completely inexplicable by now. Or perhaps there were simply more important things going on around here, like Philip exposing himself for her sake and risking everything like this. Or maybe there were bigger things to gawk at, like the sky raining flying saucers and fire, or the seas rising up to war.

{That, and I think some squirrel left an acorn under my leg. If I weren't feeling so sick, I'd do something about that.}

"Katrin!" Philip was coming in on that huge golden albatross, flanked by an entire clan of similar birds.

"THERE!!" A thunderous voice from the flying saucers above announced so loudly, Katrin felt sure Amina heard it over at Soft Snows.

The saucers responded instantly. Green lances and bolts struck down from all sides and birds started disappearing in a big hurry. The Wilds of the open seas struck back, and perhaps four or five saucers began to fall, but there were many more that remained in the skies, and all of them were converging on Katrin's location.

Katrin coughed, trying to shout in spite of three respawns-in-a-row's worth of sickness. "Philip, no, you're... they're gonna..."

But her body (or what passed for it in Dreamworlds) couldn't manage. She was shaking like a leaf in a storm and another gush from her stomach ended her valiant efforts.

"Hey!" Another voice from above shouted.

There was a ragged chorus of cheers from the assembled and respawned people around Katrin. More than one voice shouted the reason why. "Sora!"

Lightning lit up the entire horizon as the Mountain Prince came to the aid of the Ocean Prince. Hundreds of birds and assorted dwellers of the heights came from the far south, flight after flight of them hammering into the saucers relentlessly. Seas and skies alike churned with the fury of the Wilds from above and below.

{Even the clouds are attacking the cultists now...} Katrin thought in a daze as she saw a mass of cloud-type Wilds tearing a saucer apart. There were so many of them, it really looked like the clouds in the sky had decided to join in the fun and fray. Next to them, hundreds of Kinebulletons shot themselves into the saucers and ripped holes in them all over.

But still the saucers would not let up. Still they fired upon Philip's position. Still they struck to take him.

Katrin gagged, trying to say something, anything to get him away to safety, but it was no use. Philip leapt off the golden albatross just as the big bird went poof under a trio of green beams. He landed in front of Katrin and said, "We're getting out of here!"

"But..." Katrin coughed.

"GO!" Alicia grabbed her. "Philip won't leave you!"

"But...!"

With a terrible jerk, something larger than a house crashed into the Market. It was a pod, Katrin saw, and it peeled open to pour out Green Men, heavily armed and armored. The Wilds of the seas and the skies struck at them, but they were shielded; energy barriers kept the Green Men safe while they busied about setting up some sort of generator.

Whatever it was, Katrin knew it wasn't good.

"Kyria!" Philip called. "Midnight! Felice! Rue! Hope!"

They came at his call, warping in with fierce growls. Kyria shone with unearthly light, and where green bolts struck that light, they simply fizzled into nothing. Midnight and Felice charged; they didn't wait for instructions, didn't even pause to wonder what Philip wanted. They lashed out without mercy, claws of shadow and claws of rainbow light ripping into the Gaian shield protecting their drop pod. Somehow, their combined attacks tore a hole in it, a hole that lasted bare moments, but it was enough. Midnight and Felice were through, and once inside, guns or no guns, the Cult troopers were summarily torn apart.

Meanwhile, Philip's bunny went over to the jack rabbit and nosed the carrot cautiously.

But another terrible jerk happened. And another. And another. More drop pods were landing, and Philip's Comrades couldn't handle all of them at once. The Wilds at his and Sora's bidding were doing their best to take down the saucers, but there were dozens of them, and more were coming even now.

"Help us!" Philip turned to Colin. Of all the people here, he turned to Colin. Katrin couldn't suppress a surge of jealousy at that.

Colin tapped his badge. "Shiro! Raiki!"

Shiro and Raiki appeared, each of them a whole lot bigger than they used to be. {They're as big as I am!}

Like Michi's other breedings, they did not wait, did not hesitate. Raiki dashed over to Kyria in a flash, and added crackles of electrical energy to Kyria's protective aura, strengthening it and using it to channel whips of short-ranged lightning against any Gaian who tried to come close.

Shiro Howled without a sound. He Howled and Howled, but Katrin couldn't hear anything. Instead, she saw rather than heard sonic energy gathering around him. The very air was shaking as Shiro gathered more and more power.

{All of them. Together at last.} Sick or not, the sight of all seven of Michi's Breedings gathered on the same side in a single battle was both uplifting and comforting to Katrin. Yes, even though the bunny seemed more concerned about the carrot than about the fight.

"Go!" Ian's voice brought Katrin's worry back up again. She turned to see that he'd taken control of the port and had his Comrades holding people hostage. He turned the dragons on Philip, leaving the smaller ones to guard the port.

"Colin! We need more!" Philip urged.

"What do you want me to do?!" Colin protested. "That's all the Comrades I've got!"

"We need the power of the forest!" Philip said.

And Colin froze. He stared at Philip, and his jaw dropped. "But... we haven't held the Tournament yet!"

Philip stared. "What are you talking about? I..."

"Colin! You must have {something}!" Alicia barged in. "You quit your job as Forester, but Lynn never confirmed that you've ever stopped being one! So maybe you're a Forester without a Forest, but have you even tried? Have you even thought about whether you still have the powers you had back then?!"

Colin's eyes were wide. He moved in uncertainty, but he moved. He tapped his badge. "Oreb."

And a huge brown owl appeared in front of them.

***

{We have it.} Colin couldn't believe it when Oreb appeared in front of him. {I still have the power of a Forester. The Forest hasn't held its Tournament of Ascension yet, I haven't fought for the title of the Forest Prince yet... but I still have the power of a Forester.}

{We have it. We have the power of the Forest. We have the powers of all three Kingdoms of the Wilds.}

[Colin!] Oreb greeted him with a hoot. [More of the same, I see!]

He summoned his clan, and the Owls of the Lamico Forest started appearing all around them.

"Deeproot!" Colin called the biggest of the Lords of the Lamico Forest Wilds. The huge walking tree appeared before him, startling everyone, even Philip, when he arrived.

[Colin.] The Oakin creaked in greeting.

"Yachad! Lather! Prisme! Rustle! Sharpeye!" Colin called, and more and more of the Lamico Forest Wilds flooded the scene. All of them came at his call and all of them greeted him as an old friend.

But Ian shouted. "Burn them! Forest Wilds are weak against fire!"

The dragons moved. They drew deep breaths even as the Forest Wilds started whacking at them with redoubled fury. They opened their maws to unleash a torrent of fire...

And Shiro and Raiki struck. At the very moment before the fire could engulf the Forest Wilds, Colin's strongest Comrades acted in unison. Raiki had in her power the lightning combined with Kyria's light. Shiro had been gathering sonic energy this entire time.

In a single burst, they unleashed their combined powers. This wasn't some little trick used to capture lynxmice in Ed's barn any more. When they struck, it felt like all of nature itself struck at their bidding. Earth-rending thunder and lightning blazed into Ian's dragons and the very fires they amassed to unleash on the Forest Wilds instead exploded where they gathered; within the throats of the dragons themselves.

"Mippip!" Philip's bunny acted then. The last and the youngest of Michi's breedings seized that thunder and lightning as the dragons all but self-ignited, and then turned that massive power to Ian's gathered armies at the docks. Wyverns, flying serpents, Green Men, hostages, Gaian Travelers and Ian himself... all of them vanished in that blinding and deafening tide.

All of them ended up respawning right next to Katrin.

"Hello, Ian." Philip told the Gaian boy crisply.

"Mip." The blue bunny hopped over and twitched its whiskers at Ian.

Ian shrank back, looking very green and fearful indeed.

But just as they thought things were going well, darkness covered the land. Or Landho's back, as it were. Colin and the others looked up to see a figure that brought dismay.

It was a flying saucer, but a saucer the likes of which none of them had seen before or hoped ever to see. This one wasn't just bigger than any saucer they'd seen thus far. This one was huge.

"It's as big as Landho." Alicia observed dryly.

Sora swooped in then, daring to place himself between the saucer and Philip. He tapped his badge. "Paladius!"

Before them appeared... a golem. A huge, towering golem that looked made of shining white metal. It stood shoulder to shoulder with the Oakin and it looked a lot faster and a lot tougher. {Is that... platinum?!}

But Philip wasn't about to stand there and let Sora protect him. He stepped forward and he, too, tapped his badge. "Cygniva!"

Before them appeared the mother of all storm swans. Her feathers looked like a moving rainstorm, endlessly shimmering as she raised her beak and cried out. Sea and sky responded, dark clouds and hundreds of ice shards and lances of lightning gathering around her in an instant.

"Go!" Alicia urged Colin. "You too!"

Colin suddenly had a strange feeling. A very strange feeling. The feeling of desperation mixed with daring, and the tantalizing hope of possibility that might, just might work.

{What if the Lamico Forest Wilds aren't the only ones I can call? Colin wondered. What if... what if I can call something even stronger? Something even more powerful? The most powerful Lord of the Wilds I know... it has to be Lynn's own Comrade, the Lord of the Sonic Wolves... Fenrix!}

Colin stepped forward, staking it all on the gamble. He tapped his badge, and opened his mouth to call Fenrix...

When another thought occurred to him. {What about Kyubia?!}

And so the worst possible thing happened. The two names got mixed up in his head and what came out of his mouth was...

"Fenr...ia..."